1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to digital image processing, and in particular, it relates to detecting machine printed monetary amounts, like a dollar amount, for example, in binary images.
2. Background Information
In recent years, there has been an increased effort towards processing information or data on documents by using images of the documents instead of using the documents themselves. The images are usually generated by providing relative movement between the document being scanned and a scanning device which generates a plurality of picture elements or pixels in a scanning line. Successive scanning lines of such pixels generate an array of pixels for the area imaged. The pixels are usually thresholded to generate binary data with each pixel being a binary 1 or a binary 0, with the binary 1 representing the presence of data, for example, and the binary 0 representing the absence of data. Such an array is called a binary bit-mapped image.
Images of business documents, for example, often contain fields in which machine printed monetary amounts are located. These fields may be isolated, or they may form a part of lists or columns of the monetary amounts. In those situations in which the location of the monetary amounts within the bit-mapped image is not known, it is usually difficult to find the monetary amounts.